Video: the dramatic repression of the Israeli Police at the funeral of the murdered Palestinian journalist

The conflict in the Middle East escalated this Friday again during the funeral of the journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, murdered the day before yesterday in the West Bank city of Jenin, when Israeli forces repressed a crowd that accompanied the coffin on its way to its burial.

The violent episode occurred in a context exacerbated by clashes, the death of an Israeli policeman and demands for the construction of new settlements in Palestinian territories.

The incidents originated in Jerusalem when The Police repressed with blows and thunder bombs a crowd that accompanied the coffin of the Al Jazeera journalist, who was killed by a gunshot to the head during an Israeli incursion into the West Bank.

Images broadcast by Palestine TV and widely reproduced on social networks showed that Abu Akleh’s coffin fell to the ground as policemen beat harshly to the people who waved Palestinian flags and sang songs of homage.

Israeli forces stormed the compound of the Saint Joseph Hospital in East Jerusalem, Palestinian section of the city occupied and annexed by Israel, and toppled Palestinian flags.

“If they don’t stop these nationalist chants, we will have to disperse them using force and prevent the funeral from taking place,” an Israeli policeman said through a megaphone, addressing the crowd, according to a video released by the force.

Hundreds of people had gathered outside the hospital where the procession began, many waving Palestinian flags and chanting what police called “nationalist incitement calls.”

Following the crackdown, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that at least 10 people required medical assistance.

The remains of the 51-year-old popular Christian reporter, born in East Jerusalem and also a US citizen, will be interred near her parents’ grave in Jerusalem’s Old City Cemetery.

The funeral took place in a context of continuous violence and commotion between the Palestinian population and the Arab world, which had followed his reports for more than two decades on the Al Jazeera network, but also in Europe and the United States.

The Israeli police deployed additional forces and the closure of routes was ordered as a preventive measure, due to the large number of people who gather at the site, the AFP news agency reported.

Yesterday, thousands of Palestinians paid tribute to him during an official ceremony in the West Bank city of Ramallah, the seat of the Palestinian Authority.

The journalist, wearing a bulletproof vest marked “Press” and a helmet, was covering a military operation in a refugee camp in Jenin, a Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967.

After the death of the communicator in several Palestinian territories, spontaneous protests arose and a street in Ramallah was renamed with her name.

The Israeli army has launched several operations in recent weeks in the Jenin refugee camp, a stronghold of the Palestinian armed factions in the north of the West Bank, where the authors of recent deadly attacks in Israel come from.

An Israeli policeman was killed.

In the framework of these operations, an Israeli policeman who had been wounded earlier in Jenin died today according to what was reported by the service of the Israeli Prime Minister, Naftali Bennett, a fact that threatens to further blow up the already very tense situation. .

“Today, we have lost a true hero, a brave fighter … who put himself in danger for the security of Israel,” according to a statement from the prime minister.

In relation to the journalist’s death, an interim report of the Israeli army investigation released today indicates that it is still impossible to determine whether the bullet that killed Abu Akleh was fired by Israeli soldiers or Palestinian militants.

Israel had asked the Palestinians for the bullet so that “a scientific investigation can be carried out to trace the origin of the shot,” an Israeli security source told the AFP news agency.

Israel also offered Palestinian and US officials “to be present” during the exam, according to the same source.

The Palestinian Authority, led by Mahmoud Abbas, rejected the idea of ​​a joint investigation with Israel and accused the Israeli army of killing her.

4,500 homes projected in Palestinian-occupied territories

On the other hand, the always hot topic of the settlements contributed to the tense atmosphere in the region after a project was leaked, endorsed by the urban planning commission, to build about 4,500 houses in territories occupied by Palestinians.

Yesterday, a group of Israeli NGOs criticized the Israeli Supreme Court’s rejection of petitions by Palestinians threatened with expulsion in a desert area of ​​the occupied West Bank, considered by the Israeli army as a training camp.

That decision opened the way to the possible expulsion of inhabitants and the construction of houses for possible settlers and yesterday the Army demolished dozens of houses in an area claimed by Palestinians,

Today, fifteen European countries, including Germany, France and Italy, asked Israel to withdraw a construction project for more than 4,500 homes in the occupied West Bank, described as a new clear “violation of International Law” that hinders “a peaceful fair, lasting and comprehensive” in that region.

“We are deeply concerned about the decision of the Israel Planning Council to advance the plan to build more housing in the West Bank. We ask the Israeli authorities to reconsider this decision,” the foreign ministers of those 15 countries wrote in a joint statement.

This decision “directly threatens the viability of a future Palestinian state,” they added, urging Israeli authorities not to proceed with any of the planned demolitions, specifically alluding to Masafer Yatta, a series of 19 Palestinian villages in the Hebron Governorate, at the southern end of the West Bank.

The Palestinians see the expansion of settlements in the West Bank and the annexation of East Jerusalem as a major obstacle to any future peace agreement because it reduces and divides the land on which such a state would be established.

Source: Telam